JLO63O Chomsky

Before reading Herman and Chomsky’s “A Propaganda Model,” I had this notion in my head that the media was the one thing that we as the people had control over, not the government. We learned in CMC 100 that since the deregulation of TV, commercials, advertisements and other such media constructs, advertising was able to be expressed in limitless ways that the government had no control over. Such ads (and I’m thinking specifically about ones that exploit women that are modeling in a fraction of clothing) that were once avant-garde have now become mainstream. The shock value, like Jameson talked about, is no longer scandalized. These effects have been the proliferation of the culture of ‘the hook up’ and courtship. (In the essence of time getting off track, Stephanie Coontz is speaking more about this issue Wednesday at 7pm in the Bush Auditorium).
In the section, Flak and the Enforcers: The Fourth Filter, it really opened my eyes to how much the government is still involved in the media and marketing. Throughout the chapter it is mentioned how information that is released into homes could be monopolized but powerful constructs. In this section specifically, Herman and Chomsky talk about indirect and direct ways that the media is readily subjected to boycott. Meaning, when the media is not being controlled by its constituents, there are other ways its power can break through and monitor media forms. The government and other powers are able to do this by directly addressing/threatening their sponsorship, or indirectly by funding political campaigns. Either way, both these means involve a degree of money and power.
Prior to this reading, I was thinking that the media (despite its pros and cons) was a production manufactured aside from the government. And now after reading this, I realize that the government has found loopholes and gained a degree of hold over this inarguable power. It frightens me because I think about shows like 24 and Prison Break where we see that the government is trying to hide and control everything, and we think that it could never happen in real life with our government. “The government is a major producer of flak, regularly assailing, threatening, and ‘correcting’ the media..” (277). I wonder what exactly the threats are that the government imposes on media conglomerates, and how it is handled behind closed doors?